Monthly Archives: December 2008

Amazing Grays: A Woman’s Guide to Making the Next 50 the Best 50 Maggie Rose Crane
Self-Help
FTA Press
281 pages

I am a boomer, proud to be part of a movement of amazing women who are redefining what it means to age well.

Prior to publishing her book, AMAZING GRAYS, Maggie Rose Crane spent a decade crisscrossing the country conducting leadership and life-skills workshops for women. Born on the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation, she has experienced many life passages common to her peers: college, marriage, divorce, single motherhood, career changes, and creating a blended family. At the core of her message, shared through writing, speeches and workshops, Maggie exposes the fears and anxieties that haunt many midlife women – and reveals how to mindfully navigate the turbulence with wisdom, perspective and practice. She also serves as a guest editor for the Dove Real Women/Real Beauty Campaign website. (www.dove.com) Born and raised in Wisconsin, Maggie now resides on the West Coast. You can visit her website at http://www.maggiecrane.com.

Maggie Rose Crane has written an informative and engaging book for boomers who are unwilling to become feeble old women with boobs in their laps, dreams on the shelf, and “Memory Lane” their only destination. This book is for maturing women who are staking their claim as part of a dynamic and growing movement of ‘Amazing Grays’, women who want to challenge stereotypes about aging and create a fresh start for the second half of life – but aren’t quite sure how to pull it off.

When an epiphany in the hair salon convinced Maggie to try life without hair dye, she found herself face to face with the fears and questions that unsettle many maturing women living in a culture obsessed with youth and manufactured beauty…
Who am I now that I’m no longer young and fertile? Will I still be desirable as I age? Will I be invisible? Is this the beginning of the end? Is it too late to make a difference? And how on earth do I stop coloring my hair if I want to?

Balanced somewhere between a memoir and a how-to, Maggie uses her personal journey as a springboard to shatter stereotypes about aging. She shares her most poignant insights and experiences on what it means to be a woman “of a certain age,” and offers suggestions on how to mindfully chart a graceful course through the physical changes, emotional challenges and mental gauntlet of aging. With honesty, humor and plenty of research, Maggie lights the way for women who want to live with vibrancy and joy – regardless of their hair color!

In this provocative and touching book, Maggie explores, with humor and compassion, the many aspects of growing older – from changing social and family roles to changes in body and appearance, even changes in perspective and purpose. She shares how redirecting her focus from her packaging to her essence gave her the perspective to age mindfully and joyfully (after, of course, a bit of kicking and screaming).

Table of Contents:

Young…Forever?

What if It Really Is All in Our Heads?

The Culture Made Me Do It

The Key to Aging Gracefully

Shift Happens (When You Choose It)

How Do We Age?

Back to Your Roots

Becoming a Silver Sage

Riding the Cycle

Why Are Hormones So Darned Important?

Natural vs. Synthetic Hormone Replacement

Sex, Stereotypes and Statistics

A Weight is Lifted

Boomer Angst

Follow Your Bliss

A Code You Can Live By

The Happiness Quotient

Turning Within

The Workings of a Conditional Ego

Practice makes Present

The Power of Grace

Purchase AMAZING GRAYS: A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO MAKING THE NEXT 50 THE BEST 50 at Amazon!

About the Book:
In the land of Pangea, home of terror vultures, mega-sea squids, and sabertooth lions, was Ambassador Bravo, the courageous horned zebracorn. Witness his quest to bring balance and harmony back to his planet of Tiamat. Accompanied by his caretaker, Zim-Zoom the zebra eater, the two adventurers discover nefarious activities from above concerning the corrupt terror vulture King Vee, when a bloodback whelp is ripped to shreds, which threatens a war with the land and air kingdoms alike. All the while in the frigid northern waters of Pangea, the ice realm crystals are stolen from the mighty four-armed polar bear, Ambassador Frost, by Bellowfontas, the great blue mega-sea whale and his cohorts, which threatens to cause the great melt and rip Pangea apart. Will Bravo and his companions overcome the staggering odds to save their world? Only the blue phoenix knows.

About the Author:
Native California born, Curtis Isiah Stevenson Jr., moved to Charleston , West Virginia in his teens with an unknown passion embedded in him to write. Instilled in him by his mother, fellow author, Jean Ray, and confirmed by devoted wife, Carla J, Stevenson, Curtis welcomed the challenge his mother gave him to continue her dream. The Year of the Zebracorn, took it upon himself to use his inherited gift of penmanship to completely revamp and uncover the jewel of the jungle, which is the Zebracorn.